Ever really screwed things up and wanted a do-over? Yeah, the gringa does that all the time. That’s what makes time travel so appealing. But is it possible? Theoretically, sure it’s possible, but only if you want to see the future. To start the day all over again in order to get it right the second time around means travelling faster than light and that, theoretically, is impossible. But, actually, that’s good news. That means a spiteful ex can’t travel back in time and take out your grandfather, thus wiping out your future existence. It also means that adventurers who travel to the future have to stay there (maybe). For a trip to tomorrow, it’s actually relatively easy, according to scientific formulas (although no one’s actually done it yet, I think).

You see, if a person hopped on board their spaceship and zipped away into the cosmos at even a fraction of lightspeed, for a journey of say a year or two, they would return to an Earth that had aged perhaps by decades. So, technically, the galactic pioneers traveled to the future. But Einstein offered another option to travel to the future in the blink of an eye, wormholes.

A wormhole is a time tunnel that connects different parts of the universe. By using the wormhole as a direct route across the universe, rather than taking the long route of flying through the curved mass of space, a person would emerge, within moments, in a completely different time zone, perhaps an entire era altogether, hundreds of years in the future. The furthest a person could then go back in time would be to simply use the wormhole to return to the point they started from. However, a Caltech physicist by the name of Kip Thorne believes that quantum theory suggests that once a person traveled through a wormhole it would collapse behind them. A wormhole to the future might be a one way ticket to tomorrow.

So, if you want to have a time traveling adventure, you just have to find a wormhole. Or go to China. Yep. That’s what the gringa said. Go to China. Interesting reports have been in the news for a few years now about a time travel tunnel in China. Located in Guizhou Province, time travelers can break all the rules and travel back in time. You don’t even need a spaceship. You can use the ancient technology of cars.

It only takes, technically, about five minutes to travel the 400 meter length of the tunnel. However, when drivers emerge on the other side of the tunnel their electronic devices indicate that they have traveled back in time about one hour. However, time is a jealous mistress. It seems to not appreciate being lost and chases down evaders like a jilted lover turned crazed stalker. Once people travel some distance from the tunnel their lost hour catches up with them.

What the heck is happening here? It’s a mystery. One that is absolutely adored by science fiction fans, conspiracy theorists and alien abduction proponents. However, China is not a fan of wacky explanations. They have offered a few boring theories as to why this is happening:

A transmitter in the tunnel is resetting everyone’s electronic clocks which reset once again when they receive new GPS signals from a different transmitter after emerging from the tunnel.

A localized magnetic anomaly messing about with electronic devices

The gringa doesn’t really care why. It seems harmless and loads of fun. The gringa would like to go back and forth several times, perhaps hundreds of times, maybe thousands just to see what might happen. Maybe I’ll lose a wrinkle or two.

Join the gringa in continuing “Prince Caspian”, Book 4 of “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C S Lewis. In this chapter the children realize exactly where they are and remember their time as kings and queens in Narnia.

With all the worry of climate change transforming the Earth into an uninhabitable wasteland, kazillions of dollars are being spent to develop technology to colonize the Moon and various other stellar locales. But, if climate change results in a rise in sea levels that wipes out much of our habitable geography, what about living under the water? Wouldn’t it be more practical and economical to develop under the sea rather than colonize outer space?

These are just the sort of questions Samsung Corporation hoped to answer in their newly released “SmartThings Future Living Report” featured on their Samsung Newsroom website. The report is really a cleverly crafted marketing scheme to promote their latest gadgets and devices available in 2016. They want to reassure everyone that their products are keeping up with the times and will not be obsolete when the day comes that we are all surviving masterfully under the waves.

The report was researched and authored by a team of qualified “futurists”:

Maggie Aderin-Pocock – Space Scientist who believes in a future of sub-aquatic cities

James Monighan, MD – Commissioned the report and believes that smart technology will make everyone’s life better

The future this team of brilliant minds envisions is one with skyscrapers in the depths of the sea, transportation via sophisticated smart-drones, all encased in a self-sustaining bubble. What kind of technology will make all of this possible?

Skyscrapers – Megalithic structures that will dwarf the average skyscraper of today will be constructed of nano-tubes made of carbon and nano-threads made of diamonds. Yum, diamonds.

Earth-scrapers – In order to escape the ravages of life above ground, humans will also burrow into the Earth, surrounding themselves with insulating soil. Delving twenty-five levels deep, the mole people of the future will live cool as cucumbers.

UnderwaterUrban – Self-contained biospheres will house urban areas under water. The water will provide the oxygen and hydrogen fuel to run the cities.

DroneTaxis – No more wheels. Everyone will be trading in their cars for personal drone transport.

Bye-Bye Ikea – No more shopping at a local furniture retailer. Instead, folks will equip themselves with a quality 3D printer and create their own furniture themselves out of recyclable and renewable materials.

SmartDécor – Paint and wallpaper will become a thing of the past. Heck, you won’t even need a hammer and packet of nails for hanging pictures. Walls will actually be LED screens and you can download and install and photoshop to your heart’s content until you are surrounded with the décor of your dreams.

Holograms – If you think Skype is cool, wait until you can talk to a loved one three dimensionally via hologram technology.

Medi –Pod – Who needs to bemoan the good ol’ days when doctors made house calls when your home is installed with its very own medi-pod. Step in, turn on and find out what that nasty cough is all about. A handy dispenser will supply you with the appropriate medication and, if things look really bad, a surgeon can even operate remotely.

Samsung believes that the space race to colonize the Moon and maybe even Mars will continue but those colonies will probably be reserved for elite scientific explorers, courageous entrepreneurs and wealthy adventurers. Regular folk will stay here on Earth, surviving underground or underwater. As for me, I’m thinking the underground route looks interesting but I’m not ruling out a sub-aquatic chalet.

However, despite all of the social evolution and revolutions that have taken place and are still on-going, the gringa just sees more of the same ol’, same ol’. I see the wealthy living in their master-planned communities on Mars and the Moon. The upper and middle classes submerged in style, living as one with the dolphins. Working class folks like myself and the caveman will be in the deep-Earth barrio. And, the truly impoverished will be eking out a minimal existence in the ghetto wasteland of above-ground planet Earth.

However, despite the gringa’s cynicism, she has great faith and hope for humanity. Throughout history humans have always managed to innovate and practice incredible ingenuity to survive. Despite all the fears that trouble folk about how we will survive the catastrophe of climate change, the gringa believes folks aren’t really worried about whether or not they will survive. I think most folks are worried about “how” they will survive. As in:

“How will I survive with air conditioning?”

“How will I survive without a grocery store?”

“How will I survive without my car?”

“How will I survive without a light switch that works?”

“How will I survive without soft toilet paper?”

“How will I survive without a flushing toilet?”

And the big one… “How will I survive without the Internet, my laptop, smartphone and social media?”

But the gringa promises everyone that we will, indeed, survive. And probably become a better people for it.